The first time Ray Kayan stepped up to a fitness pole, he thought he had it covered.
“I can do this easily,” he remembers thinking.
He discovered a much more challenging reality.
“Gym strength does not translate into pole strength,” the 58-year-old says. “Not at all. You’re bruised all over your legs, your body aches and you can’t even spin around the pole properly. It was very humbling. A lot of people try it once and think, ‘I’m never coming back.’”
But Kayan – who was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Los Angeles with his parents when he was one – did not give up. He was enchanted by the idea of using a pole for fitness.
“Just watching people do amazing things on the pole, how they spin, how graceful they look – it was something I really wanted to do.”
